You wouldnít know it but the Los Angeles
area has some great small stream fly fishing. It makes sense, LA is
basically surrounded by either mountains or ocean and where there are
mountains, especially in close proximity to the coast, there will be trout.
Think coastal steelhead which, in days past, swam into nearly every coastal
California stream to spawn. So if it connects to the sea or did connect to
the sea, chances are it has fish. Whether a stream has fish in todayís day
and age depends on the ravages of man and the weather.

Fortunately, the concrete jungle that is
the LA basin has not reached far enough north and east to affect the trout
populations to the point of extinction and when the area gets a good bit of
rain fall, like it has this year and last, good trout fishing can be had
year Ďround.

Makes sense right? So where is this
great LA trout fishing. Well, thatís a closely guarded secret by the LA
locals that I know and one Iím not going to give up here. I will tell you
that while the actual hot spots are a closely guarded secret, fishing in
this area generally isnít and the names of these streams can be found on
various internet bulletin boards (sometimes in code) and So Cal fishing
guide books.

As I said earlier, I have the good
fortune to be acquainted with some folks in the know and had the opportunity
to fish one of these streams with John, a local expert and long time
internet friend of mine.

John and I met in a residential
neighborhood right at the base of the mountains and within minutes were
driving along a mountain stream. It was simply amazing. We stopped shortly
to gear up and then continued to Johnís secret stream. This was a convert
action, to make sure that no one could follow us to the stream once we
parked and started hiking. It was a good move. From what I could see, the
Bubba Factor in this area is high. The streams in general were no secret;
there were folks of all types on these streams and a lot of them. Folks Iím
sure that would be conscientious of this resource so close to a major
metropolitan area and folks Iím sure that would not be.

John took me to one of the least popular
streams, the kind of place that you have to know to fish well, the kind of
place where you have to know where to find fish as well as know the fish
themselves. One of the first things John told me was that these wild trout
didnít act like normal trout and success on this stream wasnít a matter of
matching the hatch but having paid your dues. He suggested I fish a Woolly
Bugger, specifically a mini Woolly Bugger tied by a mutual acquaintance of
ours, RS2. I played the hard head.

I canít remember the first fly I tied
on, not the second one, nor the 3rd. What I do remember is that they didnít
work or at least, didnít work well. I think I caught one fish on a
non-bugger type fly that day. John was seemingly catching fish at will on
his RS2 mini bugger so I reluctantly switched to a Kuni-Bugger and then
finally, RS2ís Mini Bugger. (Here after known as RS2ís Mini Marabou Nymph.)

What a difference a fly makes. I started
picking up fish, not as many or as large as Johnís but enough to call it a
good day of fishing. (Of course any day is a good day of fishing.)

We fished two areas of the same stream.
One that held larger fish, that I didnít catch, and another that held
smaller fish, where I did catch quite a few larger fish. On the way home we
fished a third area for a couple of minutes. It looked more like a motocross
track than a fly fishing stream but John tells me that the dry fly fishing
can be quite good, despite the 4x4 action near by.